Planning matters

Enterprise House is an early and innovative example of a reinforced concrete framed industrial building. Built for the Gramophone Company at its Hayes headquarters in 1912, the building was designed by Owen Williams in conjunction with Arthur Blomfield and A. Henderson, who – unusually, for this date – used the Kahn system of reinforcement and expressed the structure of the building externally. It is the earliest known work of Owen Williams, and it joined a growing collection of Gramophone Company buildings at the beginning and middle of the 20^th Century designed to meet the needs of the records factory. Enterprise House is thought to be the first complete building by Truscon (the “Trussed Concrete Steel Company”).

The Kahn system utilised ribbed reinforcement, a Kahn bar, with a square section featuring two projecting strips on opposite corners, bent upwards at angles to provide additional reinforcement to counteract shear stresses. This was a revolutionary new system used initially in the United States for factory buildings built around “daylight factory” principles to provide large expanses of natural light for factory workers. Enterprise House utilised the Kahn system in a very successful way, with form following function: the structure was externally expressed in a striking design aesthetic, not concealed behind brick or render. The result was a building which is highly evocative of the early 20^th Century.

The experimental nature of the construction materials and methods meant that, by the beginning of the 21^st Century, rusting reinforcement and serious concrete deterioration required urgent and radical steps to conserve the building. Together with the then owners and an experienced team of architects and engineers including FSP Architects & Engineers, Furness Partnership and Furness Green Partnership, we worked to develop proposals for the complete refurbishment of the Grade II-listed building for mixed uses, including a factory producing vinyl records, a business centre, a café and residential units. Enterprise House is listed as a ‘Priority D’ structure on Historic England’s 2018 Heritage At Risk Register, recognising that a solution has been agreed but not yet implemented. It is hoped that once implemented the works will allow it to be removed from the Heritage At Risk register.

Enterprise House is situated opposite The Old Vinyl Factory (formerly known as the EMI/HMV site), which is being redeveloped as part of a project to reinvigorate the former industrial area. As Planning Project Manager for The Old Vinyl Factory development site, we devised a planning strategy for the site. We successfully secured outline permission for a mixed-used redevelopment scheme including restoration of former factory buildings and conversion to accommodate over 600 residential units with additional workspace, helping to preserve and enhance the setting of Owen Williams’s earliest structure. In 2013 the masterplan and mixed-use redevelopment scheme for The Old Vinyl Factory was granted outline planning permission. The majority of the masterplan has now been approved in detail and some of the buildings have been completed and are now occupied, resulting in the Hayes Botwell: Thorn EMI Conservation Area being removed from Historic England’s Heritage at Risk register.

Figure 1: Enterprise House is the earliest known work of Owen Williams; it is hoped that once implemented, the works will allow the building to be removed from the Heritage At Risk Register.